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Some folks may find the idea of using a 32-bit distribution of Linux to be downright silly. After all, we live in a 64-bit world these days, right? Well, that depends on who you ask. The fact of the matter is there are still a lot of fully functional PCs out there that run 32-bit Linux. Up until recently, this was all well and good. Then the news came down that Ubuntu would no longer be supporting 32-bit systems come the next Ubuntu release. Clearly not everyone is thrilled about his news.

In the modern world of open source, software vendors are becoming increasingly irrelevant. At least, at the infrastructure layer.

Version 18 of the popular Ubuntu derivative Linux Mint was released in late June, bringing with it a much-needed emphasis on security, and a refocusing of organizational resources to deliver a more polished distribution. While Linux Mint 18 moves in a positive direction overall, the direction that founder and project leader Clement Lefebvre envisions is likely to raise some eyebrows.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is launching on August 2, and one of the key features of this release is support for Ubuntu Bash, which basically allows you to run Linux binaries on Windows 10 from the command line.

Free for all and fun for some, a Linux distribution and open-source suite can cut your software expenses to zero (and the suite runs on Windows, too). Our home office columnist takes a look.

Editor's note: some LXer readers report that this article may not be completely objective. See discussion thread.

One of the greatest things about running Linux is the freedom it provides. Where the division among the Linux community appears is in how we value this freedom.

It has never been easier for Linux to interact within a Windows network. And considering how many businesses are adopting Linux, those two platforms have to play well together. Fortunately, with the help of a few tools, you can easily map Windows network drives onto a Linux machine, and even ensure they are still there upon rebooting the Linux machine.

When Canonical Software, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, announced that developers from other distributions were working on Snappy packages, the media pumped a minor announcement into a major story.

One of the most common issues I see among newer Linux users is the desire to upgrade their distribution needlessly to a new bleeding-edge version. This is especially true with those who use Ubuntu and its derivatives. In this article, I'll explain why most people would be much better off sticking to stable distribution releases that have been "in the wild" for six months or longer.

I enjoy my Android phone. It's fast, has a ton of options and I wouldn't trade it in for anything. That said, I've also become frustrated by features iOS offers that Android lacks. In past articles, I've discussed the areas where Android outshines iOS. Today's article is going to look specifically at features iOS offers that I think Android is lacking.

When you consider virtualization platforms, two probably come to mind: VMware and Hyper-V. There's a good reason why — both platforms are excellent. VMware vSphere ESXi and Hyper-V are type-1 (or bare-metal) hypervisors, meaning they don't require a standard operating system to run on. These platforms are great for large-scale virtualization where you want to dedicate all system resources to the virtual machines.

A senior member of the PCLinuxOS community has recently created a flavor of the RPM-based distribution built, as its name suggests for some of you, around the Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE), an open-source project that tries to keep the spirit of the old-school KDE3.5 desktop environment alive for various GNU/Linux operating systems.

The original Chromebooks launched back in 2011 are reaching the end of their support cycle. With Google offering a fairly generous five years (*) of support and updates, users have had a good run, but the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is the first device to drop off the support list.

If network troubleshooting leads you to believe there's an issue with IPv6, you may need to shut down that protocol on your Linux machines.

Any software — even a premier operating system — that gets onto computers through stealth means has crossed over to the dark side

A petition launched Friday asks the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to investigate Microsoft's aggressive moves to convince and cajole users into upgrading to Windows 10.

Over the years, I've seen a number of attempts to create the first truly use anywhere, idiot-proof Linux PC. And until recently, Chromebooks (anything with ChromeOS) was easily the winner.

On your Linux machines, a history of your bash commands is retained. This is great when you need to repeat a command or can't remember exactly how you executed a command in a previous session. However, this can also be seen as a security issue. What if someone gains access to your machine, opens a terminal window, and checks through your bash history to see what commands you've run?

Over the years, I've tried a number of great Linux distributions. The distros that had the greatest impact with me personally were those that maintained a strong community. But there's more to a popular distribution than a strong community. Popular Linux distributions tend to appeal to newcomers, often due to features that make using the distro easier. There are obviously exceptions to this, but generally speaking it is true.

The Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) Best Practices badge is a way for Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects to show that they follow best practices. Projects can voluntarily self-certify, at no cost, by using this web application to explain how they follow each best practice.